Kremlin Accuses U.S. of Inciting ISIS Attack in Southern Volgograd Amid Ukrainian Advances

Russia has recently faced a series of critical events, coinciding with the advance of Ukrainian forces into Russian border regions, notably the strategic Kursk area.

On August 23, 2024, Moscow was shocked when a group of armed prisoners affiliated with ISIS launched a bloody attack on guards at a Russian prison in the southern Volgograd region, taking several hostages.

The Russian National Guard later announced the hostages had been freed and the attackers subdued. However, according to Volgograd Governor Andrey Bocharov, some hostages were killed during the attack.

This prompted Russian President Vladimir Putin to convene a meeting of the Russian Security Council to discuss the hostage situation and request a detailed report from Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev.

This incident is particularly concerning given that the prison operates under strict security, housing 1,229 prisoners, some of whom are affiliated with ISIS.

Although the group's influence in the country is limited, Russia has repeatedly been targeted by its attacks, some of which have been severe.

This is not the first such incident; in June 2024, six prisoners who pledged allegiance to ISIS took two guards hostage in a detention center in the Rostov-on-Don region.

At that time, five of the prisoners were killed, and one was later sentenced to 20 years in prison.

An Ongoing Battle

Since 2017, ISIS has been at war with Russia, vowing harsh attacks due to Russia's support for the head of the Syrian regime Bashar al-Assad.

Russia has not forgotten one of the deadliest attacks carried out by the group on its soil, known as the Crocus City Hall attack in Krasnogorsk, a city on the western outskirts of Moscow.

On March 22, 2024, as citizens were taking their seats to watch a performance by Piknik, a popular Soviet-era rock band, a group of men in military uniforms stormed the concert hall and opened fire. The Kremlin reported that at least 143 people were killed and over 152 others injured.

ISIS's Khorasan branch (the group's Afghan affiliate) claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement published by its Amaq News Agency.

The group said its fighters carried out this attack, struck the suburbs of Moscow, killed and injured hundreds, and caused massive destruction before safely retreating to their bases.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the attackers attempted to flee to Ukraine, vowing to punish all those responsible for what he described as a “barbaric terrorist act.”

“They tried to hide and head towards Ukraine, where a passage was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the border,” Putin added, implicitly accusing Kyiv of being involved in planning the attack.

The situation escalated when Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev confirmed on his Telegram channel that ISIS operatives in Russia have connections in Ukraine.

Later, the Russian Federal Security Service reported that the gunmen who carried out the massacre were arrested while heading towards the Ukrainian border and were “linked to influential figures in Ukraine.”

ISIS-Khorasan

In the aftermath of the Crocus City Hall attack, a pressing question emerged: What is ISIS-Khorasan? How did it evolve, why did it target Russia, and how did it infiltrate the country?

ISIS first appeared in Khorasan (a region spanning Afghanistan, parts of Iran, and Central Asia) in 2015. The group was established by recruiting militants who had defected from the Pakistani Taliban, with its armed structure consisting of individuals who either escaped or were allowed to flee from Syria and Iraq to Afghanistan.

Additionally, members from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Chechnya played significant roles, particularly within Russia.

Regarding the group's evolution and its relationship with Western powers, Turkish academic Ali Burak Darcili of Bursa University highlighted what he termed a “secret agreement” between the U.S.-led coalition forces and ISIS militants in Raqqa, Syria, in 2017.

In an article published by Anadolu Agency on March 29, 2024, Darcili stated, “In 2017, 250 ISIS fighters and their families were peacefully evacuated from ar-Raqqah in a joint operation by the U.S.- and U.K.-led coalition, which was ostensibly formed to combat ISIS in Syria.”

“Among those evacuated were senior ISIS leaders and many foreign fighters, who left the city in a convoy of hundreds of vehicles, including 10 trucks loaded with weapons and ammunition.”

The Turkish writer then posed a crucial question: "Where did these militants go after this peaceful evacuation?"

“Some went to the Sahel region in Africa, but a significant number headed to Khorasan, due to its strategic location and surroundings, including Afghanistan, Russia, and China,” he answered.

Darcili further explained that “this strategic positioning can be assessed from various perspectives related to the international order, and the rise of ISIS in Khorasan may be linked to the global competition between Russia and China on one side, and the United States and the West on the other.”

Strikes at the Heart

It’s important to note that hostage-taking and attacks targeting Russia are not new; such incidents trace back decades, with the group delivering powerful blows deep within the country.

In October 2002, Chechen fighters stormed a Moscow theater, taking around 800 hostages. Russian special forces launched a rescue operation, using anesthetic gas to subdue the attackers. However, the operation was a disastrous failure—while 41 Chechens were killed, 129 hostages also died, most due to the effects of the gas.

Another event that shook the Kremlin occurred in September 2004 when 30 Chechen militants seized a school in Beslan, southern Russia, holding hundreds of people hostage. The siege ended in a bloodbath two days later, with over 330 people killed.

Despite this history, many Russian scholars believe that ISIS is closely tied to a broader Western conspiracy against Russia.

On March 24, 2024, Al-Jazeera quoted Russian security analyst Vasily Gurovlov as suggesting that the recent ISIS attack might signal a new form of provocation against Russia amid its war with Ukraine.

He added that “it's impossible not to notice how Western media are trying to implant the idea that the Crocus City Hall attack was solely the work of ISIS.”

Gurovlov attributed this narrative to an attempt to “distract attention from Ukraine’s and Western countries' involvement in the operation,” concluding, “These actors, especially Washington, are the real beneficiaries of destabilizing Russia.”